


Love is love.

by caitlesshea



Series: It's SO Fluffy! [8]
Category: Animal Kingdom (TV)
Genre: Graffiti, Hateful Language, M/M, love is love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-08-21 16:31:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16580084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caitlesshea/pseuds/caitlesshea
Summary: Craig and Adrian help Deran clean up graffiti at The Drop.





	Love is love.

**Author's Note:**

> This is also posted on my Tumblr. Big brother Craig helps both Deran & Adrian.

Craig never called him. So when he was woken up out of a deep sleep by his phone ringing, to see Craig’s number, he knew it was something bad. “Hey man”, he whispered, as he extracted himself from Deran’s koala like hold.

“Dude, I need you to come to The Drop right now. Don’t tell Deran”, Craig whispered urgently. “Why? What’s going on”, Adrian asked. Suddenly alert.

“Just come. Bring the extra paint from your guest bedroom too. Hurry”, Craig said, and hung up the phone. It wasn’t like Craig to be so secretive. He looked at the clock, 4:00am. Ugh, Deran must’ve just gotten home too. But Craig had sounded urgent, almost frantic. So, he got dressed, grabbed the paint and brushes, and with a quick kiss to Deran’s forehead he was headed towards The Drop.

He pulled up and almost wished he hadn’t. Craig was there, outside, with rags and sponges, attempting to get homophobic slurs off the wall by the front door. That was definitely some hateful language, done by hateful people.

“Shit”, he says, as he gets out of the car.

“Yeah”, Craig says, “I came back to get the Scout, and saw all this”, he starts, as he gestures to the vandalism. “I’m just glad D was already gone. Sorry man, I know it’s late. Just didn’t know who else to call”.

“It’s all good man”, Adrian says back, “We might as well try to paint over it, don’t think scrubbing is going to work”.

“Yeah, just had to do something”, Craig says, defeated. “Do you know what happened?”, Adrian asks.

“No man. Probably just some punk kids”, Craig says as he begins painting over the worst of the language.

“Yeah”, Adrian sighs. The Drop is Deran’s safe space. They, Craig and Adrian, know this. So to have this happen, just breaks his heart.

The words are painted in angry black and red strokes. And the paint they have is light grey, “This is going to take a couple of coats”, Adrian says.

“Yeah, I can go to the store once it opens, get better stuff, but I wanted to get most of it off”, Craig says.

“Mmm”, Adrian responds.

They work in silence for a while, until they both hear a car pull up. When they turn to see Deran hop out of his van, Craig says what they’re both thinking, “Shit”.

“What the hell?!”, Deran shrieks. “What happened?! Adrian?”.

He doesn’t know what question to answer first, and he’s mildly amused that Deran knew where to find him. But Deran has his hands balled into fists, clearly agitated, so he blurts out the first thing that comes to mind, “Craig called me”.

That earns him two Cody’s glaring at him. Craig speaks up, “Came back to get the Scout and saw this. I called Adrian to get the paint. We didn’t want to wake you.”

“Didn’t want to wake me! This is my bar!”, Deran says, incredulously, to both of them.

“Didn’t want you to see it”, Adrian says, as he puts down the paintbrush and walks to Deran.

“And what makes it okay that you see this?!”, Deran says, as he gestures to the wall and kicks at a rock with his shoe. Adrian loves him for it.

“Wouldn’t be the first time”, Adrian mumbles.

“What?”, Deran says immediately, “What are you talking about?”.

Adrian sighs. Did he want to get into this with Deran right now? It was a long time ago. But, they’re done lying to each other.

“I mean, I’ve had this happen to me before”, Adrian answers patiently.

“When?”, Deran asks.

“In high school. My locker was tagged a few times”, Adrian responds.

“What? When? How come you never told me?”, Deran rushes out.

Adrian sighs and runs a hand through his hair. “I don’t know, Deran. You weren’t out then, didn’t want to make a big deal out of it”, Adrian says. He never wanted to let on that anything was happening, for his real fear was losing Deran

“It is a big deal. I would’ve helped you”, Deran sighs.

“I took care of it”, Craig says. Adrian almost forgot he was still there.

“What do you mean, you took care of it?”, Deran asks.

“The locker. Helped Adrian clean it off. Figured out who did it. They didn’t do it again”, Craig shrugs and says, more patiently than Adrian thought he could.

Deran looks equal parts mad and upset. He doesn’t know if it’s because Craig helped Adrian at a time when Deran so obviously wouldn’t have been able too. Or that Adrian kept this from him. Or that this happened to Adrian in the first place. Probably all three. He shakes his head.

“It’s water under the bridge now. But yeah, didn’t want you to have to see all this”, Adrian says to Deran.

“I can handle it”, Deran says, with little conviction.

“You shouldn’t have to.  _ We _ shouldn’t have to”, Adrian assures him. And reminds himself. He might have blamed himself as a kid, but he knows, now, that what happened then wasn’t okay. That this isn’t okay, either.

He goes to Deran and kisses him lightly. It quickly turns more heated than either intended, and they hear Craig clearing his throat.

“Bro”, Craig deadpans.

Adrian chuckles. He pulls away from Deran and picks up the paintbrush. He looks over and sees Deran pick up one too and then drop it. “I’ll be right back”, Deran says. “Where are you going?”, Adrian asks.

“The store, got an idea”, Deran says, “Just. Keep covering it. I’ll be back”. He leans over to kiss Adrian, and walks to his van.

When he comes back over an hour later, he has way more paint than they would need to finish covering the vandalism. Adrian counts at least 6 small buckets.

“What’s all that?”, Adrian says, as he points to the paint.

“Figured we can paint, too”, Deran says. He then opens the cans, and Adrian can’t help the gasp that escapes.

“A rainbow”, Adrian laughs, eyes lighting up, as he sees the different colors.

Craig leans over their shoulders. “Hell yeah. I’m in”, Craig says.

Deran’s smiling at him, and Adrian thinks he’s never been more in love.

“Alright, lets do this”, Adrian says. He kisses Deran before picking up a brush and dipping it in the red paint.

_ Love i _ _ s l _ _ o _ _ v _ _ e _ .  Written on the wall, but more importantly, written in their hearts.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
